by Maggie • August 26, 2013 • Comments Off on Badass Teachers Association: Progressive Teachers Don’t Like Common Core

The Badass Teachers Association (BAT) gets their badass attitude on when teacher’s are blamed for a “failure to erase poverty and inequality.” I thought they were only blamed… sometimes…for not teaching our children, perhaps for distorting historic truths, getting civics completely wrong and insisting on teaching how to put a rubber on a cucumber. I’ve never heard of a teacher blamed for societal poverty or inequality. But, this is a good news story, because the Badasses also refuse “to accept assessments, tests and evaluations imposed by those who have contempt for real teaching and learning.” Now, I think that’s good news, but I don’t really know what they want to teach. Do they want tests of any kind? Don’t know, but the bottom line, the Badasses are unhappy with Common Core Initiative Standards (CCIS).

Badass Teachers Association

Note as you read the story below from the Miami Herald, this site says BAT is a “group of left-wing educators, union members, and progressive activists…”

TALLAHASSEE — Conventional wisdom held that liberals and teachers supported the new Common Core curriculum standards.

Until the Badass Teachers Association crashed the party.

The 25,000 BATs, as they call themselves, are pushing back against the national standards with Twitter strikes, town hall meetings and snarky Internet memes. They have no qualms with the theory behind the new benchmarks, but they fear the larger movement places too much emphasis on testing and will stifle creativity in the classroom.

“It’s not just the Tea Party that’s skeptical of the Common Core,” said Bonnie Cunard, a Fort Myers teacher who manages the Facebook page for the 1,200 Florida BATs. “We on the left, like the folks on the right, are saying we want local control.”

The BATs represent a new wave of liberal opposition to the Common Core standards, which includes some union leaders, progressive activists and Democratic lawmakers. They are joining forces with Tea Party groups and libertarians, who want states like Florida to slow down efforts to adopt the new benchmarks and corresponding tests…

So many reasons conservatives and any caring parent is worried shocked at what we know about Common Core now that we have read it, in the same vein as ObamaCare. The devil is in the details and the details of Common Core are ugly.

Tea Party groups and libertarians, however, consider the initiative an overreach of the federal government.

Critics on the left have different qualms.

“The liberal critique of Common Core is that this a huge profit-making enterprise that costs school districts a tremendous amount of money, and pushes out the things kids love about school, like art and music,” said Mark Naison, a professor at Fordham University in New York and co-founder of the Badass Teachers Association.

It’s not only the BATs.

“The sand is shifting for us on Common Core,” said Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association.

Ford fears teachers weren’t adequately prepared for the transition to the new standards, even though they will be evaluated — and in some cases, compensated — based on how well their students perform.

For Susan Smith, who heads the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida, the greatest concern is the testing that will accompany the new benchmarks.

Did you miss the Common Core math lesson that teaches 3 X 4 = 11 and that’s okay if you can explain it? See it here and prepare to be amazed. On the BAT website they feature the book below and a portion of the review (below) caught my attention:

Nielsen helps us see, through his deep understanding of how children learn, and by the childrens’ thoughts he shares, that so long as we seek the “right answers” we are hopelessly lost. The Common Core is built upon this fundamental error. Read the full book review here.

Just a few companies are cashing in on a mammoth $600 BILLION industry (you’ll see names below), providing and being rewarded for providing “human capital” for a global society. The material your child studies is copyrighted and cannot be changed by parents or local schools.

The entire program circumvented Congress. Your state or national elected representatives have nothing to do with the implementation of Common Core, although they can stop it now.

I don’t see concern that the plan leans to deciding for your child whether she/he is college material or needed in a VoTech school because America needs plumbers and electricians.

Common Core is “mandated.” It’s NOT LAW, not funded, not evidence-based, not field-tested and there is no pilot program.

Whatever the Badasses are concerned about, I hope they help us bring down this insane intrusion into the lives of American families – a sure road to the destruction of future generations.